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Listening and Learning….A word from James 1:22

Listening and Learning….A word from James 1:22

I have often felt like I’ve completely neglected this poor blog over the last year, but really it is just that the words would not come. Words had to be REAL, and then had to be INTENTIONAL., and I had to BELIEVEin what I was writing. And there were honestly MANY times where I would start to write and have an amazing idea and then it was disappear into oblivion it seemed…

But with that said…I have a post to share.

Something profound happened a few weeks ago, and it was a deep revelation that absolutely blew my mind.

You see, I’ve been learning about the relationship between TRUTH and GRACE over the past year, and while I could understand that there was a RELATIONSHIP, and that you could not have one without the other…I didn’t understand what it meant as far as for myself. And because of this disconnect, so many other areas of my life were stifled from growing and maturing.

God showed me while I was praying the other day the missing puzzle piece, and it came out of frustration I was having in another area of my life.

Do not just merely LISTEN:

Listening is only hearing the truth…but missing the grace

What was shown to me was that I have always listened to what I was told to do, because I was told to do it. I have always listened to what the Word said to the best of my knowledge, because I was supposed to…AND He showed me that LISTENING or being a HEARER is not the same as LEARNING from what you have been told, and DOING it and MAKING IT YOUR OWN.

James 1:22

“ Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Look at this verse closely, and it is a life lesson for everything in life….” Do not merely LISTEN to the word, and so DECEIVE yourselves, DO WHAT IT SAYS.”

When you listen, you are doing it because it is brought to your attention, you are following obedience by hearing it from someone’s mouth or by reading…but when you HEAR it you are not ready to do it…because Listening isn’t what brings about understanding. Deceiving ourselves means that we are only giving ourselves half of what we really should receive.

DO WHAT IT SAYS:

Hearing the truth and applying to our lives through grace…

….” Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves, DO WHAT IT SAYS.”

There are a lot of churches that teach their congregation to read scripture, and memorize it…but they fail to teach on how to apply it.

Applying is theDOING.

Just remembering the bible verse that says, “ For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) – Just MEMORIZING this will not make you BELIEVE it .

You can read the Word every moment of your life, but it will just be words to you unless it is learned to be applied.

You apply it through taking what you HEAR and seeing how it may fit in your life, what is it that YOU will DO with what you heard?

Grace is what makes Truth real to us. Grace helps us to apply what we already know.

GRACE HELPS US WITH THE DOING, because GRACE HELPS US WITH UNDERSTANDING.

LOOKING IN THE MIRROR:

Without knowing truth and grace together, you will not remember either one, you can not step forward…

I know the Word very well, but more so in concepts, I don’t always know how to apply a certain scripture to everyday life, unless it smacks me in the face like James 1:22-25 did:

I was trying to deal with a certain situation in my life where I needed to place MY input, but I had a hard time doing that. I was asked what I thought about it…but I had a hard time finding MY perspective on the situation.

The reason I had a hard time…I was reflecting what I was told to in my work, and my actions, and I wasn’t comfortable trying to explain it myself. Because I wasn’t familiar with what I thought, I was familiar with what I was TOLD to think….

“ Anyone who LISTENS to the Word but does not DO what IT SAYS is like a man who looks AT HIS FACE in the mirror and after looking AT HIMSELF, goes away and IMMEDIATELY forgets (neglects) what he looks like.”

Having the reflection we are told, and being who others want us to be, or fitting the mold, so to speak…it does not make anything our own, we can not be made successful by WHO WE KNOW,

“ Anyone who LISTENS to the Word but does not DO what IT SAYS is like a man who looks AT HIS FACE in the mirror and after looking AT HIMSELF, goes away and IMMEDIATELY forgets (neglects) what he looks like.”

Having the reflection we are told, and being who others want us to be, or fitting the mold, so to speak…it does not make anything our own, we can not be made successful by WHO WE KNOW,we are made successful by WHAT WE KNOW.

CONTINUE LIFE APPLICATION:

Everyday remembering are we doing what we are doing because we were told to, or our we doing it because we learned how to make it our own by what we have been told…

James 1:25

“ But the man who looks intently into the perfect (complete)law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard(not neglecting it), but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.”

We have to live our lives everyday REMEMBERING what we have been told, and finding a place for it in our lives.

We have to try it out for ourselves, we have to make decisions based on what we know our right based on what we have heard, but knowing it is the right decision because what we DO lines us with what we were TOLD.

Little Steps Of Faith by Angela Sarich

My journey with the Lord

My heartbeat is to follow His lead…

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them."
(Isaiah 42:16)

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